Henry Normal

Henry Normal explains why his new project is no joke

Forget sitcoms and skits. It's product placement and new technology that will save British comedy, says producer Henry Normal.

Lizzie and Sarah was a Stygian comedy about the lives of sexless middle-aged women written and performed by Julia Davis and Jessica Hynes. Its broadcast reminded me of the line that the late great editor of the Sunday Express, John Junor, used on his writers: "Laddie, your piece is excellent - and if I were to publish it I would not change a word." BBC Two did not spike Lizzie and Sarah but it did put it out at 11.45pm on Saturday night. It was certainly strong stuff. (Sample line: "Oh, John loves big boobs. He always says I was two soggy old socks pre-children and with all the breast feeding and wotnot he just tells people I had a double mastectomy.") But Davis and Hynes, who cleverly also played two vacuous teenage girls whom their husbands do deign to lust over, were superb. The build up to a Thelma & Louise climax was fuelled by a high-octane anger. Henry Normal of Baby Cow who made the pilot tells me that he has not lost hope of its becoming a series. He'll be lucky. By Friday the BBC had not even confirmed it would be on iPlayer. If you missed it - and you probably did - you can, however, download it on iTunes.

Perhaps the best sitcom of the year was Gavin and Stacey. As Henry Normal pointed out - there are loads of scenes when everyone's laughing but nobody's the butt of the joke - a refreshing approach. The sequence where the entire family got fantastically over-excited over Gavin's dad's (three-second) appearance on the news was probably the best portrayal of family life on TV since the early days of The Royle Family. We'll put aside memories of that horribly disappointing Christmas special, though, and hope for the best when the recently announced third series rolls around.

Which brings us to the last episode of The Royle Family (BBC2), Denise's wedding. This, like the series itself, was quite unique as nothing whatsoever happened. Unless you count Jim's diarrhoea and Nana's constipation, which cancelled each other out.

I came across the Royles while playing five-finger exercises on the remote control and was instantly transfixed. This is a rivetingly original slice of life, like a bomb-damaged house displaying its vacancy to the world. If it reminds you of anything, it is The Family.

The blue-rinsed monster is only here for the jeers

The number of times I've enjoyed a programme so much that I've forgotten I was reviewing it can be counted on the fingers of a mitten: The Fast Show, House of Cards, Beyond the Clouds, the Challenger Space Shuttle, that's about it. But last night's show can be added to the list, due to a breathtaking combination of improvisation, controlled audience participation and inspired writing (from Aherne, Craig Cash, Henry Normal and Dave Gorman).